It will be interesting to see how that plays out."It is my opinion that Lieut. Watada cannot be tried again because of the effect of double jeopardy," [the defense attorney] said, contending that because it was prosecutors who asked for the mistrial, and because the judge granted the mistrial over the opposition of defense lawyers, the prosecutors could not subsequently retry Watada.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Update on Watada
I want to link you to a Time article entitled "A Mistrial for Lieut. Watada". A mistrial has been declared at the request of the prosecution. A new trial date was set for March 19 but it is possible that will not take place:
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Since we know the war IS illegal, and that Watada is in the right, the only real outcome of a trial would be to determine that indeed, the war is illegal by U.S. standards (as determined by a U.S. judge). Thus, a mistrial is politic in this case since it allows Watada to exercise his constitutional freedoms, while not setting legal precedent of calling the Iraq war illegal (which we all know it is anyway). I am so proud of Watada for standing up for his principles. Now, if we could only get our elected officials to do so!
ReplyDeleteM.